Walkabout

 Posted on 8/20/1996 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


{original post unavailable}

My concern about detailed synopses comes from a number of
elements. One of the foremost...a not as detailed synopsis leaves some
room for surprises. Even if you want to know what happens, to have
every breath, every line given to you ahead of time diminishes the
*impact* of what you're seeing. If someone says, "In this episode,
Kosh dies," then okay, you know it's coming...but you don't know *how*
it's coming, and that's half the fun.

Second, when someone attempts to recreate a scene, inclusive of
dialogue and action descriptions, the episode itself becomes a hostage
to how well that's presented. I can't tell you how many times I've
gotten email from people who said, "I read a detailed synopsis of this
episode before I saw it, and from the way it was described, it felt
really stupid...but then I saw it, and I liked it a lot better than the
way it was presented in the synopsis." It can mitigate against the
impact, and the quality, of an episode if it's not well presented. A
simple by-the-numbers, blow-by-blow synopsis can flatten out any of the
drama.

Will they watch it? Likely yes. Will the impact be
diminished? Yes. Can people approach the episode from a prejudiced
perspective thanks to a too-detailed synopsis? Yes. There are other
concerns even beyond this, but those will do for now.

(And my problem with the other fellow wasn't so much the
synopsizing, as that was all he ever did, moments after the show, just
to be first, and never took part in anything else.)

jms